Jammie Thomas turns down $25k settlement from RIAA

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We reported earlier this week that Jammie Thomas-Rasset got a reprieve from a $1.92 million dollar judgement against her after being sued by the RIAA for sharing music online. Luckily for her, the fine was reduced from the mouth-dropping amount to only $54,000 by a federal judge after he found it to be “monstrous and shocking”. Yet, it got even better for Jammie after she received an offer from the RIAA to settle the case for only $25,000 which would go to a music charity, but there was a specific condition.

Here’s the thing. The RIAA wants the judge’s decision to reduce the fine to go away. Not because they just want to settle with Jammie, but because in getting her fine reduced so significantly her case will have created a precedent which will make it difficult for the RIAA to get large fines upheld against other copyright violators in the future. The key point in their offer is that she must ask the judge who reduced her fine to vacate his decision. In other words, she must ask him to remove any record of his decision to reduce the fine.

Luckily for other folks facing the RIAA in the future Jamie turned them down. Incredibly, after facing a $1.92 million dollar judgment Jamie walked away from putting the matter to rest for only $25,000 . According to the report, the RIAA is now threatening to fight the reduced $54,000 award. Clearly the organization is ticked Jammie turned down what it believed to be a generous offer and that her fight has made future court cases for the RIAA more difficult.